Venus Transit

Nate and I went to Kopernik Observatory tonight for an event that will not happen again until 2117! The planet Venus passed by the sun, and the orbits of Venus and Earth lined up so we could see it.

It was a pretty cloudy evening, but people eagerly gathered inside to watch Venus via live internet feed from NASA's clear view of the sun. Everyone anxious wondered if the clouds would clear enough for us to view it from Kopernik's telescopes.

Then..we got the call! The sun had been spotted on Murry Hill Road, and blue sky was on its way! After a rush of excitement, the telescopes were set and ready to display the sun.

Nate and I went into a large room that had a giant telescope coming down through the roof. The view from the telescope was projected on the wall, and when the clouds cleared, we saw the picture above. The giant white circle is the sun, and the small black dot toward the bottom is Venus making its way to the right side of the sun. And those blacks spots in the center are sun spots.

After a view minutes of watching the sun on the wall, we made out way to the smaller telescopes. The one Nate is looking at here displayed the sun as green. This was to lessen the intense impact of the light the sun gives off. They connected a special eyepiece to the telescope to make it safe to view the sun with the naked eye. Sure enough, we could see Venus in front of the sun!

We headed outside to find sunglasses you could use to safely look directly at the sun. There were more telescopes set up outside as well, and it was interesting that it was cloudy because you could see the clouds moving past the sun too. The final telescope we looked at magnified the sun even more - you could even see the solar flares moving on the surface of the sun!

It was fun to be part of all the hype at Kopernik tonight. God creatively placed so many different things in the sky, and we gained a greater appreciation for His creation by viewing this rare occurrence. I would highly recommend a trip to Kopernik! They typically have events on Friday nights if you're ever interested: www.kopernik.org